An open letter to Harry Kane as the England striker bids farewell to Spurs after 18 years with the club having completed a £100million move to Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich
What can you say about Harry Kane that hasn’t already been said a hundred times over? I guess, thank you.
Thank you for wearing the Tottenham shirt with so much pride over the past decade. Thank you for proving to academy players across the country that it is possible to chase a dream and play for your boyhood club on the biggest stage. Thank you for always leading with a sense of humble maturity. Thank you for the goals. And thank you for the oh-so-many memories.
It is incredibly rare within the game of football to be so intrinsically linked to a single club – even more so in the modern game. There are probably only a handful of players in each generation that earn the title of Mr (enter club here). Harry Kane will certainly always be known as Mr Tottenham, even though the time has come to move on to pastures new.
It is fair to say that none of us knew what you would go on to achieve in the Lilywhite jersey the first time we saw the No.37 take to the pitch. By the time that number morphed to an 18, we were excited. And by the time you donned the famous No.10, we were blown away.
Eighteen years as a Tottenham player, 435 appearances, 280 goals, 64 assists, the club record goalscorer, England’s record goalscorer, one brief yet unsuccessful stint in goal, one of our own.
Spurs are setting out on a new path under Ange Postecoglou, the first project that seriously feels like a rebuild since Mauricio Pochettino. Signings are being made in the image of the manager, and we are finally getting back to the ‘Tottenham way’ of playing – attractive and attacking football with the hope of success at the end of an entertaining road. That’s why we all fell in love with the Poch era. That’s why we all adored watching the likes of Modric, Bale, and Van der Vaart under Harry Redknapp. And the fact that Harry Kane won’t be a part of the next era should not make it any less exciting.
These days, with the amount of money being thrown about by Man City, Newcastle, Chelsea and Man United, the only way for a team like Tottenham to challenge is to build something over a number of years and take their chance when they hit their peak. That is the harsh truth of the matter. We do not have limitless funds to fish around for transfers like we’re playing a video game – and I think a reliance on that becomes a little stale and boring for the sport in general.
I do not expect Spurs to go out and use the Kane cash to fund a big-name direct replacement for our No.10. I think that would actually be a mistake. The squad would be better served if Levy and co reinvest the money across the board. Another class central defender. A midfield replacement for Hojbjerg if he leaves. A young, hungry, pacey forward like Gift Orban who slots seamlessly into Postecoglou’s style of play. You can’t replace Harry Kane directly because there is simply no one as good as him. But what you can do is make the squad stronger as a whole, and invest in a forward that maybe brings something a little different, a high-press energy that Kane would have struggled with.
I worry that Spurs will do the bare minimum and sit on the money rather than reinvest, but whatever the case, I’m ready for the next big Tottenham adventure.
I have seen some people online questioning Kane’s loyalty by choosing to leave his boyhood club. That is ridiculous. We football fans throw the word loyalty around so much, but rarely actually extend it to the players and managers that represent our clubs in return. We love you until you are no longer useful to us – that is the sad truth for many. The real truth is that Harry Kane has been playing at a level far above Tottenham’s average for the best part of four or five years. The choice between staying at Spurs and becoming a one-club man versus leaving in pursuit of trophies was likely a tough one, but no one has the right to criticise him for his eventual choice.
Let us not sugar-coat the fact that Kane leaving Tottenham without a single trophy to show for his efforts is a crime, though. A player of that calibre, and with some of the players we had around him, Spurs should have scooped up an array of silverware. Those two Premier League title races where we fell just short. The Champions League Final. Cup finals and semi-finals.
The sad reality is that had Harry Kane come through the academy of any other Big Six rival, he would likely still be at that club and have a trophy cabinet full of shiny cups and shields. Tottenham failed to match his ambition and his quality over a number of years, and the hierarchy will always remain guilty of that.
We will look back on Harry Kane’s time at Tottenham with unbridled joy, but also unrelenting regret. Isn’t that just another decade in the life of a Spurs fan, after all? Harry Kane, he’s one of our own.